Draco on the run
by Laura JN
Summary: Set a short time after the final battle; Draco Malfoy is on the run from the death eaters, who want his soul, when he runs into something he never expected he would need; Help from a muggleborn - Laira
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This is a fanfic I felt inspired to write after seeing the sixth movie. I would bore you with a disclaimer but I see no point as this is on an official fan-fiction website which does all that for me thankfully. Anyway, I own Laira, she is my own creation. Enjoy x

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**Draco On the Run - Chapter One**

Draco Malfoy leaned back against the cold, brick wall. His heart was beating fast. The adrenaline surged through him. His silver-blue eyes were searching in the dark streets, alert and almost fearful. They had found him.

The dementors slowly swooped in, sucking at Draco's very soul, breathing in his most precious memories, trying to steal them away. Draco tried to run, but he had already done so much running, that his knees gave way. He lay slumped against the wall, slowly loosing consciousness, as his soul was sucked away from him. He could only watch, as he saw a tiny blue light leave him, then his vision went.

Draco woke, to see a bright silver beam illuminate the streets. The dementors tried to fight against it, but the beam was far too strong. He watched as they fled, and saw a silver eagle chase them away. It caught one of them and dragged it far into the distance, and out of sight. Draco looked around, to see where the beam had come from. There was a tall girl standing next to him, holding his wand. She had long brown hair that went just past her shoulders, and mysterious green eyes. Draco, in his state of weakness, felt himself being drawn into them.

He eventually snapped out of it though and tried to get up.

The girl stayed facing where the dementors had been, looking around, checking there were no more on the way,

"Are you alright?" she asked him, when she was sure it was safe.

"I'm fine." He said bluntly, "Who are you?"

"Laira Ackerly. Who are you?" she asked. Draco looked taken aback,

"You don't know? Have you never read the Daily Prophet before? And gimme back my wand!" He snatched it back from her.

"No need to be so rude. And no I don't read the Daily Prophet. Is that some sort of news paper?"

"How can you not know… " Draco trailed off, as he realized what was going on,

"You didn't know you were a witch?" he asked her,

"I'm a what?"

"A witch. And a very slow thinking one. You must be a witch, or you wouldn't have been able to fight off the dementors."

"Is that what those things were? Oh… I just picked up the wand and pointed at them. I didn't really do anything."

"You must have done something… its not even your wand." Draco was slowly becoming more and more confused. How could she have cast such a powerful spell, without even using words or knowing what she was doing? Laira looked at him, and tilted her head to one side, trying to understand him,

"I just pointed the wand… and thought about protecting you. Anyway. Its very late you know? Not a good time to be wandering around outside."

"I know that…" Draco finally stood up, and began walking away from her, when he remembered he had nowhere to go. He was a wanted death eater, which meant nowhere, including his own house, was safe. He turned to face Laira,

"Tell you what, if I can stay round your place, I'll explain all about magic for you tomorrow." It was more of a demand than a request, but Draco was very tired, and very hungry.

"Okay… but I don't understand… how can I be a witch? My parents aren't witches or wizards…" Laira's eyebrows furrowed as she tried to think.

'Oh great' Draco thought, 'I'm stuck with a mudblood.'

Draco followed Laira down the stone cobbled street, and along a path, until they reached a rather grand looking block of flats. 'At least she's not poor' Draco thought, as they walked inside, and up some stairs to Laira's front door,

"So you're a wizard then?" Laira asked, as she turned the lights on and went to shut the curtains,

"Yes…" Draco replied, wondering why she was so slow,

"So why couldn't you fight of the dementors? Surely if I can, then you could?" Draco wondered how he could answer this awkward question without sounding pathetic,

"I can't use that spell, it requires… Anyway, I'll explain more in the morning." He did not want to say that he could not use the spell because he did not have happy enough memories. He went to collapse on Laira's rather comfy looking sofa.

Laira put the kettle on, and went to the fridge,

"Coffee or tea… or hot chocolate?" She asked Draco,

"Hot chocolate." He replied. He knew chocolate was supposed to be good after being attacked by dementors.

"Hot chocolate…?" Laira copied him,

"…Please." Draco hated being polite to muggle-borns, but he could see that he was not going to get his way with this one unless he did. Besides, she had saved his soul; he would make it a one off.

A short while later, Laira walked over to Draco with his hot chocolate, and a plate of toasted crumpets with butter and honey. She did not give them to him until he thanked her,

"Why are you so impatient?" She asked him,

"I haven't eaten in days." He said in-between mouthfuls. Laira looked down at him curiously, and then sat down beside him on the sofa. She crossed her arms and tried to think,

"You can sleep in the guest room. There's an en-suite bathroom and I'll find you a dressing gown."

Draco nodded, drinking the hot chocolate. He decided that Laira's cooking was not bad, for a mudblood.


	2. Chapter 2

Laira walked into Draco's room, carrying a dressing gown and some pajamas that she managed to borrow from her next-door neighbor. She put them on the bed, then almost jumped out of her skin when Draco walked out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. She turned around quickly and walked out of the room, but not before she had seen his abs.

Laira went into her own room and sat on her bed hugging a cushion. She had had a very long day, and just discovered that she was a witch. She wondered why Draco had not answered her question properly earlier. She smiled and lay back against her pillow.

Draco wondered why Laira had left the room in such a hurry, but shrugged it off, and put on the nightclothes she had brought him. He went to her room to thank her, thinking she might hit him if he did not, but found her asleep in her day clothes on her bed. He walked quietly into the room, wanting a quick nose around before he went back to his room. He needed something to tease her about, some sort of imperfection. He looked at her dressing table, and saw some framed photos that had been positioned carefully on it. Draco moved in for closer inspection; most of the photos were of Laira with girls who Draco presumed were her friends from school or college. The photo in the middle however, was of Laira and a tall blonde guy. His hair was a similar shade to Draco's. Laira looked a few years younger in the photo and was smiling happily up at the guy, and Draco noticed how the guy's arm was around her waist. He then noticed some writing at the bottom of the photo,

_R.I.P Darren_

Draco backed away from the photo slightly, realizing he probably should not have seen it. He walked out of the room feeling rather guilty. He could hardly tease Laira about something like a dead boyfriend. He went to bed, and finally fell asleep after a very long day, wondering if Laira had saved him because he looked like Darren.

Laira woke the next morning a little confused, and then realized she must have fallen asleep with her clothes on. She had a quick shower, and then dressed in a t-shirt dress with an interesting design on the front, and some knee length black leggings. She then went to get breakfast. She thought of waking Draco, but then remembered how tired he had looked, and instead she went to work, leaving a message on the kitchen table.

Draco woke that morning, or as he later realized after looking at a clock, mid afternoon, to find that Laira had gone. He went into the kitchen in search of food, still hungry after the previous three days of not eating, and found her note on the table. It read,

_Draco,_

_I've just gone to work; I'll be back around five. Your clothes are in a dryer at the bottom of the stairs, they should be dry by now. I've left breakfast in the fridge; call me if you need anything else, my number is on the fridge._

_Laira_

_P.S._

_Interesting tattoo you have… I didn't know you were a Goth._

Draco grimaced as he looked down at his death eater mark. He wished it would just go away. He ate his breakfast, and then went to fetch his clothes. He would have just used _accio_ but then remembered he was in a muggle flat. He got dressed, and then went to check the time. It was three o'clock already. He left the flat, and locked the door using his wand, then went in search of a clothes shop. He decided he would have to blend in with the muggle world while he was here, so he bought the least repulsive things he could find, frowning in disgust every now and then at hoodies and track suits. He settled for some dark coloured tops, blazers and smart trousers. He payed with a check, and then went back to the flat. He looked around for some source of entertainment, and then stared at Laira's large television screen. There was a crack in the corner, and it made the whole thing look as if it would fall to pieces any second.

Laira was at her work place, in her own studio, carefully inking over a sketch she had done, when her phone rang,

"Laira?" Draco asked. He had spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out how a phone worked, "your television is broken…"

"I know. Theres a little thing called the credit crunch you know? I can't get it fixed, it costs a lot." There was a strange sound on the other end of the phone, and Laira heard Draco say something like _reparo_,

"It's fixed now." He said into the phone, "How does it work?" Laira stared dumbfounded at the receiver for a moment,

"…Do wizards not watch television?" she asked him,

"Not usually, no."

"Theres a remote control somewhere around…"

'_Accio remote_' Aira heard Draco say to the room at large,

"Found it." He stated,

"Okay, then press the button in the top right corner with a little circle and a line through it."

Draco followed Laira's instructions, eventually figuring out which end of the remote was the top, and that it needed to be pointed at the television. She told him how to find the menu, and select a program when he found something good. He said 'thanks, bye' and put the phone down determined to find something worth watching.


	3. Chapter 3

Laira went back to work, and moved onto colouring the image. She put it in her folder when she had finished, and then locked the studio and left. It was getting dark outside as she made her way back to the flat. When she arrived home, she hung her coat up, then wandered in, and burst out laughing when she saw Draco,

"What's so funny?" He asked, bemused,

"You're watching _power rangers_." She giggled, "How is that not funny?"

"Well it looked interesting… watching muggles beating up aliens. This would never happen in real life."

Laira did not bother to explain that she was laughing because the program was aimed at young children. She went to the kitchen to start cooking dinner, trying to stop the laughter.

Draco and Laira were sitting on the sofa eating their dinner on trays, watching _power rangers._ Laira spent most of the time she was eating trying not to choke because she was laughing at all the over the top acting. Draco could not understand why Laira seemed to find the program so funny, but he enjoyed watching the ninja style fight scenes,

"Can tell me about magic when this program's over? I've been wanting to know since last night." She asked him. He nodded, engrossed in the action that was the red ranger kicking and punching a very ugly alien.

It was just as the program ended, and Laira was walking over to the dishwasher, that she heard a strange noise outside. She looked out of the little kitchen window. It had already gone dark outside. She peered out to see what had made the noise, when she heard it again. It was a low swooping sound. She opened the window, and then wished she hadn't. Through the darkness, came a single dementor, into the kitchen through the window, and almost knocked Laira off her feet. She screamed and backed away as it came towards her again. Draco rushed into the room after hearing her scream. He saw the dementor and reached for his wand. He knew he was terrible at the spell, but he had to try,

"Expecto Patronum!" He shouted, trying to think of a happy memory he hadn't already failed with. A tiny wisp came out of the end of his wand. He tried struggled to find a better memory. He watched as Laira slumped to the floor, little life left inside her. The dementor was going to take her soul. Draco focused as much as he could and pointed his wand at the dementor,

"EXPECTO PATROMUM!" He yelled, and to his surprise, instead of a tiny wisp of silver, came a powerful ray of light, it immediately caught the dementors attention. It flew towards him, but was soon forced back out of the window by the ray, and Draco watched, as a giant silver dragon emerged from his wand, and chased the dementor far into the distance. He went to the window to shut it, incase there were any more dementors near by, and then went to see if Laira was okay.

Laira slowly opened her eyes. She was being carried to her room. Draco laid her on the bed. Then sat down on the edge,

"You alright?" He asked. Laira was surprised to see a look of concern in his silvery eyes, something she had never thought possible. She nodded then sat up. She fell back again, but Draco caught her. Her cheeks went slightly red, and he was almost certain his had too. He sat there holding her, not quite sure what to do. He had a strange sensation in his chest that he had not felt before. He put her down again, and went to get some chocolate. He came back with a mars bar and handed it to Laira. She took it, and sat up again, this time managing it. She ate the mars bar, and looked up at Draco. She noticed something had changed since she met him the previous night, but she was not quite sure what. His manners had improved a little at least.

Draco sat on the edge of Laira's bed, wondering what he was going to do. The dementors knew where he was now, but if he left, he could be putting Laira in danger. He wondered why he cared, but he did for some reason,

"Laira? I can't stay here, and neither can you. Not for a while anyway."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because now that the dementors know where I am, they could come back, with reinforcements. You'll be under suspicion of helping me."

"Why are they after you anyway? What have you done?"

"Nothing; I'm a death eater. If they catch me, then they can put me in prison without a trail, that is if the dementors don't take my soul first."

"What's a death eater?" Laira asked. It sounded bad.

"It's… not important. But, I'm innocent, that's all you need to know. We have to leave though if you don't want to loose your soul." Draco tried to steer the conversation to the point,

"But, I can't just leave! I have a job, and…" She tried to think of more reasons, but that was her only one. Her family lived far away anyway, and Draco had said that it would be temporary, "I'll phone them and tell them I can't come in for a few weeks, that should do for now." She walked over to the phone. Draco sighed quietly; glad she had not persisted on the death eater topic.

Once Laira had made the call, and packed all the belongings she wanted to take with her, she dragged the bag to the door,

"Are you sure I'll be able to take this much stuff?" She asked Draco,

"Of course, I can just make the bag smaller." He said, pointing to his wand. He walked over, and shrank the massive suitcase he had called a bag, to the size of a wallet, "See?"

"Okay… you have to teach me that one when I get a wand." She said, still staring at the tiny thing that was her luggage, "So where are we staying?"

"That's where I'm going to need your help, I can't apparate without drawing attention, so we'll have to stay at a muggle hotel until I can think of a way around that, and I have no muggle money." Draco explained,

"Okay… what's a muggle?" Laira asked him,

"A non-magical person… what you used to think you were."

"I see. So how did you pay for those clothes?"

"…I used a check. I don't know if it was valid there or not but it didn't seem to bother the man at the till." He went on, "The hotel might not be so forgiving though."

"So you're broke?"

"Are you kidding? I'm filthy rich, but its all wizards' money. I can't use it in these shops, and I'd have to go to the bank to exchange it for muggle money, which I can't do because they'll arrest me."

"That makes sense. So you'll pay me back when you're able to access your account again?"

"…Yes…"


	4. Chapter 4

The two eighteen year olds walked into the reception area of a rather grand looking hotel,

"You are definitely paying me back…" Laira declared,

"Fine…" Draco did not want the hassle, but Laira was too stubborn for him to bother putting up a fight. She paid, and took the key, and then Draco followed her to the lift,

"What's that?" He asked,

"What?"

"This." He pointed as the doors opened automatically.

"It's a lift."

"…"

"Its an alternative to the stairs." She pressed the button for the fourth floor, and the lift doors closed, and began to move up. Draco was surprised by the sudden movement, but copied Laira, who got out seconds later when the lift stopped, and the doors opened on floor four,

"I don't understand… how can one button do that…" He tried to take in the complicated concept that was an elevator. He shook his head, giving in, and followed Laira to the room.

The hotel room was large, and well furnished, with a four-poster king sized bed in the middle and a small lounge area with a wide screen television. Modern-framed paintings hung on the walls to compliment the warm colours of the room. Draco walked over to the wardrobe and used his wand to bring their luggage back to its normal size. They unpacked, and then watched television for a while. It was during this, that Draco realized that there was a small problem,

"Umm, there's only one bed…"

"So there is." Laira replied. She looked over to it, then back at Draco,

"…I'll take the sofa." He sighed.

Laira was just drifting off to sleep in the large, comfy four-poster, when she heard a strange noise,

"Draco?" She asked,

"Umnmn…?" Draco replied through chattering teeth,

"If you were cold you should have said so." She rolled her eyes,

"I thought you might be asleep already…"

"Just get in." She muttered, rolling over so there was room for him to lie next to her. Draco was reluctant at first, but he was too cold to complain. He got up and climbed into the bed next to her.

Several minutes later, Draco was slightly warmer. Laira felt his presence beside her; he was still shivering. Draco hugged his knees, wishing he had mentioned this sooner. He had very nearly got hypothermia. He heard Laira sigh again, and felt her roll over, so that she was half lying on top of him. She put her arm on his bare shoulder,

"Warm up quicker." She said. Draco had that strange feeling in his chest again, and put his arms around her too. It was much warmer than hugging his own knees.

Laira woke up the next morning to find her-self lying almost entirely on top of Draco. She felt her cheeks turn a light shade of pink. She looked up at him, and watched for a few moments, as he slowly breathed, with a peaceful look on his face. She had not seen that before; the sight made her cheeks turn even pinker. She carefully got up, and dressed, and then went down in the lift in search of breakfast.

When Laira returned to the room, she opened the door, and had walked in about three paces before realizing her mistake. For the second time now, she had walked into a room and found Draco slightly wet, and wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. She turned around, intending to leave the room before he noticed her presence, but it was far too late,

"Laira, where have you been?" Draco asked her,

"Err, just eating breakfast." She said, trying to walk over to the wardrobe without looking at him, "I'll start packing now then." She began pulling her clothes off of their hangers. Draco eyed her, full of suspicion, then shrugged it off again, and went to get dressed.

Later, Draco sat down on the sofa next to Laira. He had been meaning to tell her about magic before now, but somehow always lost the chance. Laira turned the television off,

"You're going to tell me then?" She asked, becoming eager,

"Yeah." Draco leaned back and put his arm casually around her back; he was not quite sure why, "The first thing you need to know is that you need a wand usually, but since you don't have one, I'll have to let you use mine."

"Where can I get one?" She interrupted him,

"You can't, no one knows where our wand-maker is right now. Anyway, I'll show you a few of the more useful spells, and then you can try them." He proceeded to teach her _wingardium leviosa_, _reparo_ and _protego_. When she had mastered those, he went on to tell her about Hogwarts, Quidditch, and all the other things he could think off. By the end of it, Laira decided she wanted to buy a broom.

Laira was really interested in everything Draco was telling her about magic, but she could not help occasionally being distracted by his mysterious silvery eyes. She was feeling very dazed, and she put her hand on his cheek. It was when Draco suddenly stopped talking that she realized what she had done. He just stared at her for a minute, then closed his eyes, and pulled her head forwards, so that his lips touched hers.


	5. Chapter 5

Draco wondered why he had done it for a few moments. He still had his eyes closed, and he was moving his lips slowly against Laira's. He was holding her face in one hand, and had the other around her waist. After what felt like years, he realized that he did not hate muggle-borns, in fact he never had. He had been brought up to think that way, and they were not inferior to pure bloods. He felt no resentment towards his father, but he was slightly angered at how mislead he had become because of him.

Laira sat there, still in a daze, she realized what was happening, but she was a little too surprised to do anything about it. She leaned back on the sofa until she was lying down on it; Draco moved with her. Laira had had no time to decide how she felt about Draco, and everything was happening so fast. She reluctantly pushed him away from her. He opened his eyes and looked at her,

"Is something wrong?" He asked, puzzled,

"N-no, I just… I'm not ready for this. I mean… I've only known you for a few days, and I'm kinda confused right now." She managed to get the words out. Draco just kept looking at her, searching her eyes. He eventually sat up again, deciding he did not want to make her feel uncomfortable. He wondered if she was rejecting him altogether. She looked flustered as she sat up again, "Um, we should probably go about finding somewhere better to hide, we're only a street away from my house, so the dementors might find us soon if we don't leave."

"You have a point, I'll look into it." He got up and headed towards the door, when Laira stopped him,

"Wait, do wizards use the Internet?"

"The inter-what?" Draco turned around,

"The internet, its good for just about anything. Come on I'll show you." She got up and grabbed his hand, then led him to the hotel's Internet café.

After much wonder and amazement on Draco's part, and a few minutes on google maps, Laira had located a small village in Switzerland, half way up a mountain, that was uninhabited by wizards and witches. They packed, and checked out of the hotel, and then apparated to just next to lake Geneva. They got the train up the mountain, and then booked a room at a local inn - using fake ID's that Draco had made with Laira's help. This time their room was a little smaller, but the view out of the balcony was incredible, and the room had a nicer feel too it.

Over the next few days, Draco taught Laira more spells, and told her more about the magical world, until he could think of nothing more to teach her,

"Well that's it for the easy stuff, one of us is going to have to switch to wandless magic, and I'm terrible at that."

"Wandless? How?" She asked him,

"Well you have to focus a lot, and use your mind basically. Its more powerful, but a lot more difficult. Try and levitate something."

Laira focused on a cushion that was just lying on the sofa, and tried to get it to float; it only moved a centimeter,

"You don't have to do it without words," Draco explained, "Say '_wingardium leviosa_' like you did before, but move it with your mind." Laira did so, and it worked, just. She had very little control over where the cushion was flying, but it did gradually make its way over to her,

"I feel like Jean Grey… moving things with my mind." She muttered,

"Who?" Draco asked,

"Never mind."

Draco had been wondering over the last week what was going on. He had kissed Laira, and a slowly growing part of him wanted to do it again, but he felt shy because he was worried she might push him away again. 'Right' he thought, 'I'll have to make her feel more comfortable around me.' The two went to have lunch in a café at the top of the mountain,

"Wow this place is great, you can see so much from up here." Laira commented happily, "I wish I had my camera with me."

"Muggle cameras aren't as good. The pictures don't move." Draco stated,

"They move? Oh. Well I wouldn't want the picture to move anyway, or I wouldn't be able to draw it very well." Laira replied,

"Draw it? Are you an artist or something?"

"Yeah, I'm a concept artist. I design costumes and character visuals for a movie company."

"Wow… Wish I could draw."

"You can! Everyone can, it just takes practice and understanding before you can get good at it. It took me years to get to where I am now. I wanted to go to university but I –" She broke off. Draco thought he saw something like deep sadness in her eyes, "Anyway, I'll draw you if you want." Draco looked at her, trying to figure out what was wrong, and wondered if it was Darren-related,

"Okay." He agreed, and then tried to change the subject.

They got the train back to the inn. Later, when they were lying on their fronts on the bed watching television, Draco thought about their current situation. "…We haven't been visited by any dementors yet, and it's been a week already. I think we should be fine here for quite a while, so I need to start working on a plan to clear my name."

"Right." She replied, "Any ideas."

"Well there's no chance of me appealing to the council as I am now, so I have very few options. I think the only way to really get them to leave me alone is to get rid of my death eater mark… but I don't know how."

"We've got time," Laira said, smiling at him, "We'll get it off somehow.

"Thanks," Draco smiled back, "you're great support." And before he could stop himself, he was kissing his way up Laira's jaw line.


End file.
